✅ My Cousin's Keeper [NaNoWriMo 2021]

130. My Perfect Date

Author's note: Sorry for the delay on this chapter. It was surprisingly tough to write. Hope you enjoy it!

A reply from Ffrances came after just a couple of minutes. She was happy to drive us, but she was already heading to my place. She said that she would meet me there, and then we could drive to the restaurant. I took a deep breath, set the satnav for home, and drove off. My nerves were jangling the whole way, and some devil on my shoulder was trying to distract me with every possible irrational fear. I didn't need to feel that, but I didn't know what else I could do. I just had to hope that everything could go well. I was sure that I would calm down when I met up with Ffrances. There would be nothing to worry about then, because she was sure to fix any problems that came up. As well as powerful and dominant, my fiancée had an incredible skill for getting to the heart of any problem, so there was no way she would allow the day to go wrong.

Still, I couldn't help drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, and fretting about every little thing until I finally arrived at home. I saw that Ffrances's car was on the street outside, and she was standing on the path leading to the kitchen. She had probably just moved her car off the driveway so that I could park my truck there. Or perhaps she had been standing outside waiting for me; that would have been such a romantic gesture, if a little more demonstrative than I would expect from her. Was she just that eager to see me? That would be perfect for today.

"How's it going?" she asked cheerfully as I got out of the truck, reaching over to pick up my things. "Are we off somewhere fancy?"

"I said I'd take you to the Mercator Hotel," I said with a grin. "You always wanted to go there, didn't you?" I could see from the surprise in her eyes that I'd already made her day.

"What?" she gasped as I walked towards the back door. "For real? I thought you were joking, mentioning a place that would never let people like us in. I would have dressed up more if I... Oh, you look ravishing. You really did, didn't you? You booked the Mercator?"

"You don't need to worry about your outfit," I reassured her. "You look amazing." And she really did. She was wearing a green and gold formal gown, so she'd understood that we were going somewhere fancy, but she hadn't gone to extremes with her clothes, hair, and makeup like I had. But she was beautiful, and I knew that her natural poise and confidence would matter more than any particular designer's name. I leaned forward to offer her a kiss, made slightly awkward by the fact that I had bags in both hands, and then turned towards the house.

"Look," I said, "It's so romantic that you've come outside to greet me. But I actually need to drop some of these off here. Actually getting there is the one part of the plan I didn't think through. I'll be two minutes, and ready to go. I promise."

Another kiss, and I was back in the house. I darted up the stairs as quickly as I could, and paused a second to listen. I didn't hear the door, so I didn't think Ffrances was coming in.

I'd just wanted to put the last few things, like the receipts, back in my room; and swap cellphones. But now I was here, I couldn't resist checking on Tess's room. I knew that sometimes she would leave her laptop here when she went to school, and I wanted to see. She had seemed a little agitated this morning, and I still didn't really know what had happened to her, so a chance to read her messages on FriendSpace would have been a big help. I was pleased to see that the laptop was there; but the screen didn't light up when I tapped a key. Switched off, so I wouldn't be able to check who she'd been talking to without her password. I sighed, but I knew that it had always been unlikely I would have found what I wanted.

My confidence was restored a little when I checked the drawers of the changing table, to see if she needed any new supplies. She might have bought some more of those awful medical diapers – I could see packs sticking out under the edge of the bed, half-heartedly hidden – but it looked like all the ones that she had been keeping in the spare room were back here. And her laptop was here too, not in the spare room, which I could only assume meant that she had given up on staying in that little dreary box after a week of waking up wet more often than ever before. I hoped she would choose to stay in the nursery for good this time; it really wasn't good for her to force herself to act like an adult all the time.